Once a niche segment, box-style SUVs have become a crowded battlefield. On October 10, the Galaxy Warship 700 was launched, bringing together four mainstream domestic automakers — BYD, Geely, Chery, and Great Wall Motor Company Limited (ASX equivalent: GWMOTOR) — on the same track. In a market where players like Beijing Off-Road and Trumpchi had already established a presence, the gathering of these four giants brings even more ambitious goals of seizing the top positions. One of the Galaxy Warship 700's key selling points is "intelligence," targeting novice consumers who may have a latent interest in off-roading.

Seemingly in response to the Galaxy Warship 700's launch, a poster released on October 12 by Tank, a brand under Great Wall Motor Company Limited (GWMOTOR), pointedly stated: "Intelligence can avoid danger, but only a ladder frame can provide the foundation."

By September 2026, the top-selling models in the box-style category had already exceeded 30,000 units in monthly sales. Such blockbuster monthly volumes showed the major automakers a new source of growth and made box-style SUVs an indispensable piece of their product portfolios.

Geely had already anticipated the competition. Li Chuanhai, Vice President of Geely Automobile Group and President of its Research Institute, told reporters on the evening of October 10 that by 2027, this track "may well become a red ocean." Nevertheless, Geely's internal goal remains to enter the top tier and challenge for the leading position.

As the major automakers fill out their product lineups, they also add rivals for the early movers. The distinctiveness brought by boxy styling must continue to withstand comparisons in pricing, space, and daily experience. The growth potential of box-style SUVs has become an unavoidable competitive battleground for leading domestic brands vying for share in the family SUV market.

Four Giants Converge

The Warship 700's first step upon entering the market was to position itself in the purchasing range of around 200,000 yuan. The new vehicle offers six variants, with official guide prices ranging from 189,800 to 379,800 yuan, and an early-adopter guide price starting at 179,800 yuan. Eligible trade-in customers can receive an additional 10,000 yuan subsidy, bringing the limited-time refreshed price to as low as 169,800 yuan. The lowest price corresponds to the two-wheel-drive entry-level version, while the three-motor four-wheel-drive Yufeng edition has a guide price of 219,800 yuan.

This price range already includes the Fangchengbao Tai 7. Its plug-in hybrid two-wheel-drive version starts at 179,800 yuan, and the four-wheel-drive version starts at 206,800 yuan. The two vehicles' prices overlap, giving consumers with this budget who want to balance daily use and outdoor travel one more car to compare.

Geely equipped the Warship 700 with a native new-energy off-road architecture and a unibody ladder frame, and also offers a three-motor four-wheel-drive system. But the sales side has not confined all customers to the professional off-road circle. Guan Jiuyang, Executive Deputy General Manager of Geely Galaxy Sales Company, specifically explained that the two-wheel-drive Explore and Explore+ versions are designed for users who care more about exterior styling, interior, and urban driving.

A platform emphasizing off-road capability has been placed into a vehicle line that covers both urban users and professional users. Customers can first choose two-wheel drive or four-wheel drive based on their own usage needs, then decide whether to purchase additional capabilities. The Warship 700 must enter both the hardcore off-road comparison and the new-energy large five-seat purchase list.

However, an executive at another domestic automaker told reporters that relatively few users actually engage in extreme off-roading. Many people like the rugged style, but their primary use scenario remains urban. Therefore, they ultimately chose a unibody chassis and range-extended powertrain to balance urban comfort and long-distance travel needs.

Different technical approaches are all vying for a group of people who want a vehicle that is practical for daily use yet capable of going further. For manufacturers, ladder frames, unibody chassis, powertrains, and four-wheel-drive solutions each have their own design logic; customers can take the same budget and compare products from different approaches side by side. Technical categorization has not separated the market for them.

Great Wall Motor Company Limited (GWMOTOR) and Chery had also already deployed their respective lineups. Great Wall Motor Company Limited (GWMOTOR) operates both the family and professional off-road sides between Haval and Tank, with the H10's official positioning directly written as "a box-style SUV for the whole family." Chery covers travel and urban use through products like the Traveler and iCAR. BYD is expanding its Tai series beyond the Bao series, with the Tai 7 extending from plug-in hybrid to pure electric. The starting points of these routes differ, but the purchasing needs they target are overlapping.

After the four giants converge, products beneath the boxy styling still differ. Some retain more complete professional capabilities, some prioritize urban comfort and long-distance use, and others vie for large families with seat and space combinations. The differences must be manifested in the places customers use most frequently to have a chance of becoming a purchase reason.

For latecomers, simply launching a box-style SUV is no longer enough. The Warship 700 is entering a market that already has products and price benchmarks. The goal of reaching the top tier requires capturing share among these choices.

Blockbusters Reveal the Sales Ceiling

A product volume of over 30,000 units per month is enough to make mainstream automakers take notice. In the September report released by the China Passenger Car Association on October 12, 23 models had wholesale sales exceeding 20,000 units that month. The Tai 7 entered the list with 32,144 units, and the Jetour Traveler with 23,644 units. Box-style SUVs can already achieve monthly sales at the level of mainstream models.

This is happening in a car market under pressure from terminal demand. In the same September, national passenger vehicle retail sales were 1.618 million units, down 28% year-on-year; cumulative retail sales for the first three quarters were 13.334 million units, down 21.7% year-on-year. Products capable of contributing tens of thousands of units in monthly sales carry greater weight for automakers seeking growth.

This also forces automakers to make trade-offs in product development. A designer at a leading new-energy vehicle brand recalled to reporters that when they first launched a box-style SUV, they considered making the exterior rugged and the interior consistent with that feel. But in the end, they chose to make the cabin more suitable for family users.

Such product definition combines the driver's off-road interest with the whole family's travel requirements. The rugged styling can be retained while the interior can be arranged around comfort and convenience. For manufacturers to make more people willing to choose a box-style SUV, they need to manage the relationship between these two sets of requirements.

Early orders for the Great Wall Motor Company Limited (GWMOTOR) H10 also revealed different choices within family demand. Lü Wenbin, General Manager of the Haval and Ora brands, said at the Chengdu Auto Show in August that among terminal orders at the time, the six-seat version accounted for about 70% and the five-seat about 30%. The six-seat mainly corresponds to multi-person family travel, while the five-seat leans more toward outdoor living and modification, and the five-seat share is still growing.

This makes "family users" a demand that needs to be further broken down. Multi-person travel, daily commuting, and outdoor living will push different versions toward different people. The divisions between six-seat and five-seat, and two-wheel drive and four-wheel drive, are all answering how customers plan to use the vehicle.

Geely this time categorized new-energy large five-seat users who like the box-style exterior as one type of customer, and also emphasized that two-wheel drive can handle daily needs such as long range, driving comfort, and intelligent assisted driving. What it is vying for is already the purchase decision that conventional family SUVs are also competing for.

A scale of tens of thousands of units per model gives box-style SUVs the opportunity to become a major business for the big automakers; achieving that scale, in turn, requires automakers to accommodate different families' usage patterns. Professional capability remains important, but whether a product can enter more people's daily lives is beginning to determine how large a purchasing audience it can reach.

Fighting for the Top in a Red Ocean

For automakers already operating in this market, the increase in similar choices will also create pricing pressure. Beyond the four giants, existing off-road manufacturers are also discussing the pressure brought by increased supply. A traditional automaker executive believes that as consumer dividends gradually fade, the box-style SUV market has entered a stage of "stock slaughter," forcing manufacturers to make products better and more versatile. As similar models increase, the product features that early movers already possess will also need to withstand more usage demands.

However, the key to the box-style SUV track is separating hardcore off-roading from lifestyle-oriented soft outdoor needs. The track appears crowded, but there is a watershed within it; families that primarily commute in the city while also enjoying weekend camping and light unpaved travel are the main group many automakers are currently fighting for.

Geely has placed its choice on product coverage and top-tier goals. Guan Jiuyang said that box-style SUVs have become a mainstream segment, and Galaxy "definitely needs such a product" in a relatively large segment.

For a company already operating in the family car market, adding a box-style SUV is also about adding its own place to these customers' purchase lists.

After predicting the red ocean, Li Chuanhai also spoke about R&D, validation, manufacturing, and technological accumulation. He believes it is necessary for Geely to participate by leveraging its own advantages. According to him, the Warship 700 was developed over nearly five years; when the long-term preparation is complete, what the sales side must face is already a market with competitors and price benchmarks.

Now that box-style SUVs have entered families' purchase lists, the major automakers filling this category is also about trying to retain their existing customers. Lacking a corresponding product could cause some buyers to turn to competitors, and automakers can hardly stay on the sidelines.

Predicting a red ocean and continuing to enter are not contradictory. The red ocean describes the bustle on the supply side, and that bustle itself will educate the market and expand the user base; the real differentiation happens beneath the bustle. When styling converges and configurations are leveled, competition will return to R&D, validation, and manufacturing — the places that are not easily seen. This is precisely where the big automakers have the deepest accumulation and where challengers find it hardest to catch up quickly.

For Geely, entering is not testing the waters; Galaxy's scale in the family car market determines that its box-style SUV is also aimed at the top.

When supply increases, pricing pressure follows. With clear benchmarks, new entrants cannot set prices higher than early movers, and early movers must also recalculate their own pricing and configurations. The squeeze travels all the way to costs and profits, and what is tested is who can still maintain quality after prices narrow.

Whether one can stand firm is not about how early or late one enters. In a crowd, those eliminated first are often not new faces, but cars that rely only on styling and concepts and cannot withstand daily use. Once a box-style SUV is bought and taken home, it must handle long drives, camping, unpaved roads, and the family's daily commute, and problems surface quickly. The reputation early movers have built and the problems they have exposed are unavoidable for latecomers.

What that executive called "stock slaughter" ultimately comes down to these things. Styling can be quickly imitated, and specification sheets can be matched item by item, but how many tens of thousands of kilometers a car has run, how many rounds of validation the powertrain and chassis have undergone, and whether the production line and supply chain can sustain scaled deliveries — there are no shortcuts. When Li Chuanhai talks about R&D, validation, manufacturing, and technological accumulation, this is the layer he means, and it is also the capital that gives Geely the confidence to enter. Slaughter also means concentration: as the list grows longer, only a few will remain at the front, and mid- and tail-end products will be cleared out first.

Early movers have already been through one round of testing, and now it is Geely's turn. Box-style SUV owners will drive their cars on long trips and into winter, and who can withstand use will become clear in two to three years. The red ocean offers no buffer period for newcomers — from the first day of launch, every order for the Warship 700 must be taken from someone else's list.